'Borat' star Sacha Baron Cohen offers Trump a role in next film: 'You'll need a job'
Christi Carras
LA Times•October 26, 2020
If Donald Trump
doesn't achieve great success in the upcoming presidential election, Sacha
Baron Cohen has a new gig lined up for the president.
After Trump
called the English comedian an unfunny "phony" and "a
creep" in response to his buzzy new mockumentary, "Borat Subsequent
Moviefilm," Baron Cohen had a message for the president on Twitter.
"Donald—I
appreciate the free publicity for Borat!" the actor and producer tweeted
Saturday. "I admit, I don't find you funny either. But yet the whole world
laughs at you. I'm always looking for people to play racist buffoons, and
you'll need a job after [Inauguration Day on] Jan. 20. Let's talk!"
On Friday,
members of the press on Air Force One asked Trump about "Borat Subsequent
Moviefilm," which includes a controversial scene involving the president's
personal attorney, Rudolph W. Giuliani, as well as a sequence that shows Baron
Cohen's Borat wreaking havoc at an event headlined by Vice President Mike
Pence.
According to
Voice of America's Steve Herman, reporters wondered if Trump was "worried
about security breaches" after additional video showed actress Maria Bakalova — who plays Borat's daughter in
the film — entering the White House and interviewing Donald Trump Jr. while
posing as a conservative journalist.
"I don't
know what happened," Trump told reporters. "But years ago, you know,
[Baron Cohen] tried to scam me and I was the only one who said no way. That's a
phony guy and I don't find him funny."
"To me,
he's a creep," he added.
Shortly after the president declared he was above Baron Cohen's shenanigans, video resurfaced of the comic disguised as another one of his alter egos, Ali G, talking business with an unwitting Trump for a 2003 episode of HBO's "Da Ali G Show." That series starred Baron Cohen as three revolving journalist personalities: Ali G, Brüno Gehard and Borat Sagdiyev.
"Me idea
is to come out with, just like, these ice cream gloves that make the ice cream
not go on your hands and make it all ... sticky and also keep your hands warm
when you is eating the ice cream," Baron Cohen's Ali G tells Trump.
"Is you in or is you in?"
"Well, it
sounds like a good idea and I hope you make a lot of money," Trump
replies. "Good luck, folks. It's been nice seeing you. You take care of
yourself."
Another clip
making the internet rounds, of course, is that "Borat Subsequent
Moviefilm" scene, captured via hidden camera, in which Giuliani places his hand
down his pants while alone in a hotel room with Bakalova, who is again
pretending to be a conservative journalist.
In reaction to
Giuliani's claims that he was tucking his shirt in and was never
"inappropriate" during the encounter, Baron Cohen recently told "Good Morning America," "It is what
it is. He did what he did."
"If the
president’s lawyer found what he did there appropriate behavior, then heaven
knows what he’s done with other female journalists in hotel rooms,” Baron Cohen
said.
"Borat
Subsequent Moviefilm" has been available to stream as of Friday on Amazon
Prime Video.
This story
originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
